Market research commissioned by Better Public Media Trust shows more New Zealanders support the merged RNZ/TVNZ merger than oppose it.
The Research NZ poll found 60% support the ANZPM and 40% don’t support it, of those that had an opinion.
Including the ‘don’t knows’ the results were:
- 44% support
- 29% don’t support
- 26% don’t know
The question was – The government is planning to merge TVNZ and RNZ into a new state-owned public media service, with an extra $109 million per year, which equals to $22 per person per year. If this organisation provided new content for niche, minority and regional audiences while keeping the current TV, radio and online services as well, would you support it?
“This result shows considerable support for the ANZPM policy, considering the high levels of negative reporting and opinion pieces over the last few weeks,” said Myles Thomas, Chair of the Better Public Media Trust.
“With a little more information about the merger, including the cost and the purpose for it, New Zealanders are more supportive of this policy.
“This shows the government can have confidence in its ANZPM policy. When New Zealanders know more about the ANZPM, and once it is established in July next year, that public support is likely to keep growing.”
The new research was completed between 15 and 19 December 2022 by Research NZ with a nationally representative sample of 1000, weighted to represent the adult population. The maximum margin of error is +/- 3.2% (at the 95% confidence level).
The new poll differs from a Taxpayers Union poll on the same subject which found 54% opposed and 22% supported the merger, with 24% unsure. That poll was taken in early November.
Another reason for the difference is the question used. Our question adds some context for respondents who may not know what the government’s ANZPM plan is.
Research NZ analysed the results by demographic and found significant differences by age and gender:
- Male respondents were more in support of the proposal than female respondents (49% and 40% respectively).
- Younger respondents were also more likely to support the proposal than older respondents. For example, 65% of respondents aged 18-24 were in support compared with 42% of those aged 55-64.
There were no significant differences by geographic location.
“If this organisation provided new content for niche, minority and regional audiences while keeping the current TV, radio and online services as well, would you support it?”
Add more rubbish while retaining Fuck Boy Island etcetera? Hell fucking no, thanks for confirming Bomber was wrong (sadly). I saw this coming and stand by my position: abolish them both.
The licence fee was supposed to fund these, as the B.B.C still is. No reason it cannot be commercial-free.
Nearly all of the local T.V. stations are dead. There are only two other broadcast networks, no remaining news channels, and no more local bulletins. Nobody even suggests breaking up those monopolies into local affiliates.
And does anyone even have a plan to regulate the Over-the-Top networks? Their political donations must be too good, because soon those foreign networks will be the only ones left.
The Better Public Media submission to the select committee for the ANZPM Bill addressed this. Especially Peter Thompson of the Better Public Media Trust in his oral submission, said there needs to be a ditching of the profit imperative, otherwise we’ll just get more Fuck Boy Island. Thompson’s oral submission starts at about 11mins 30 secs:
https://www.facebook.com/EDSISCNZ/videos/471599391588954/
The BPMT written submission broadly supports the Bill but sees it as having many flaws that need to be fixed.
To ensure that a commercial ethos doesn’t dominate they suggest, among other things, that the mergered RNZ/TVNZ gets funding via either levies and/or a ring fenced tax:
“Solution 1 – Levy
For many years, the Better Public Media Trust has advocated for a levy on ISPs, digital advertising and screen device sales and this idea is slowly gaining popularity. A new levy could be introduced or the existing Telecommunications Development Levy could be repurposed or expanded to include commercial online services. Large international media providers operating in New Zealand such as Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Facebook and Google/YouTube should also be targeted by such a levy, though that would be a larger piece of work”
Ask the right question to get the answers you want!
Politics 101